Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1887-01-15
A GLANCE AT SOME ESSAYISTS oP-
POSED TO HENRY GEORGES UNTEN-
ABLE THEORIES.

1t is quite frequently urged by re-
spected contemporary that Henry George
is right " in the MAN," but that in some
things he goes too far. To Just what par
ticular point he proceeds correctly before
he begins to pass beyond the boundary of
right and reason, has not been clearly
stated by this friend of Mr.. Georges doc
trines. OF one thing, however, we are as
sured by this same authority, nor is there
any reason to doubt it, that Mr.. George
was not the originator of his theory Pre-
cisely as true is it that neither was the
lamented journalist to whom it is cred
tied. 1t is an idea that had its birth far
back of the generation in which that intel
ligence was manifest. The doctrine that
all value is the creation of labor is very
old. La Fontaine preached that it was
the source of all wealth. Hesiod, the
Greek poet, compared idlers to the
drones which eat up the fruit of the bees
Of labor" But. as De Laveleye has said,
labor is mans action on nature, to the end
to satisfy his wants. and value is relation
between the physical properties of things
on the one hand, and mems needs on the
other. The value of things is not deter
mined by the labor employed in their pro-
duction, for many things of the same value
cost very unequal amounts of labor.
The real basis of things value is
its utility-the uses to which it can be
put"
Mr.. George advances the old idea that
the State should possess all land, apply
ing the rents thereof to the wants of the
needy. As he says Nature gives wealth
to labor, and to nothing but labor There
is and can be no article of wealth but what
labor has gained by making it, or search
ing for it, out of the raw material which
the Creator has given us to draw from" If
this is true, then, as Mr.. Scudder, a recent
essayist, puts it, private property in land
is uniustifable, and SO the doctrine "leads
down to chaos. Give us once
the naturalization Of the land. and one
must then follow the footstep Of the An
archist and the Nihilist to lower deep"
Transmute the doctrine into the rule of
the law, and the disposition to be of the
needy would be irresistible.
Mr.. George supposes the case of but one
man in the world, and concludes he could
have no more wealth than he made and
saved. In fact, he would have no wealth
at all, because he could exchange nothing;
so value in use is not always the creation
of labor. Mr.. Scudder puts this case 'Let
a mechanic, to test the dogma that value
is created by labor, make no contract for
his remuneration before completing his
work. Let him make whatever he chooses,
and call on the world to come and buy his
product at price fixed by the amount Of
labor he has expended upon it. VIII his
appeal bring customers? VIII he not find
that his ability to exchange the article
which he has made for money, or anything
else, depends solely upon its adaptability
to the wants of some one, and not at all
upon the labor which he has expended
upon itP Labor, then, is not the sole
factor in production, but nature is an equal
one. The factor, then, that may be APP
piled to the natural condition of the thing
for its improvement or modification, is
itself a thing to be bought and sold.
Collins, the Belgian socialist, having pro-
posed this problem, ga naked man and
planet" to show that all wealth is the
creation OF labor, Scudder solves it thus
" If the planet is as naked as the man, the
solution would be dead man and a
planet"
The best, and what we deem indisputa-
bic, definition of production, is formulated
by De Laveieye, nature, labor and CAPT
tai" Thus, the agriculturists' arms are
labor, the soil nature, the implements used
and manures applied, capital; the frs,
two precede and create the latter And
this simple illustration clearly demon
strates the natural harmonious relations
between labor and capital, and which are
only disturbed by such fallacious doctrine:
as Mr.. George advances, and the short
sirhtedness of some men who believe the
order of nature can be reversed or broker
up with benefit.
Mr.. Edward Atkinson, modern essay.
ist. whose reasoning has commanded uni